SUPREME COURT BANS COLLECTION OF EXTRA FEES BY PRIVATE MEDICAL COLLEGES: T.N. SERVES AS A CASE STUDY

Supreme Court rules against self-financing medical colleges collecting extra fees, reigniting debate on state fee regulation committees.

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Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that self-financing medical colleges should not collect additional fees and adhere to the subsidised fee structure for BPL students. The court also ruled that if the students have paid any additional fees so far, they are entitled to a refund.

This matter was taken up by the Supreme Court while upholding a High Court order that invalidated the Kerala Fee Regulatory Committee’s notification directing private medical colleges to deposit higher fees collected from NRI students into a State corpus fund. While the apex court directed that the self-financing colleges are entitled to retain the fees transferred to the State, it also mentioned that “the State of Kerala or the Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee is at liberty to direct the colleges to furnish their accounts to establish that the directions have been complied with.”

The recent ruling has reignited discussions about state-level fee regulation committees, established following a 2003 Supreme Court mandate requiring every state to form independent fee oversight bodies. These committees, headed by retired high court judges, are tasked with monitoring fee structures in private colleges, including self-financing medical institutions. However, questions persist about their effectiveness and whether private medical colleges comply with the prescribed fee structures.

Tamil Nadu, home to 38 government medical colleges and numerous private ones, serves as an example. The State has had a fee fixation committee since 2007—currently headed by Justice R. Pongiappan—and the Tamil Nadu Educational Institutions (Prohibition of Collection of Capitation Fee) Act, 1992.